The setting apart of brother George H. Hough as a missionary to India beyond the Ganges.

THE Board are persuaded that the circumstances attendant on the acceptance and employment of brother Hough will afford gratification, and create thankfulness to the Head of the church, who asks not in vain "whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" The language of the heart of brother Hough is, "Here am I, send me."

Mr. Hough is about 28 years of age, a native of Windsor, Vt., and member of the Baptist church at Pawtucket, R. I.

In his letter soliciting the patronage of the Board, after some account of the religious exercises of his mind, he observes," with an impression that it was my duty to become a servant in the church, for Christ's sake, and having a special regard in my heart for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom and the everlasting welfare of men, I obeyed, as well the call of duty as that of the church, and engaged with much weakness and trembling in the ministry of the word. Since the time I received the knowledge of the truth, I have had a disposition of mind towards a missionary life;-have felt a peculiar and strong desire for the fulfilment of those prophecies, which relate to the universal reign of Christ on earth, and have been, and still am, not only willing, but desirous of offering my body as a living sacrifice to God, that his gracious purposes might be accomplished in me and others. For about one year past, my impressions of duty relative to engaging in the India mission have been increasing. Having spent my early years in acquiring the art of printing, and it having been intimated that a new station would be sought by the American missionaries, where a printing establishment would be eminently useful towards accomplishing the object of the mission, I felt upon my mind a kind of double obligation to offer myself to the respected Board of Foreign Missions for their patronage and assistance; that they would allow me the happiness of making the sacrifices, encountering the trials, enduring the fatigues, and dying the death of a missionary. "One persuasion has ever occupied my mind upon this subject, that if it were my duty, if God designed me to labour in that part of his vineyard, He himself would conduct me towards it by his Providence; and I cannot help observing, that every step which I have taken towards the present interview has been apparently to my mind providentially directed; and I think I could never have felt satisfied that I had done my duty, without presenting myself, as I now do, to this Board, and intreating that they would bestow on me the favour, which it is now in their power I hope consistently to grant, of living and dying their missionary in India."

Mrs. Hough in a letter to her parents about the same time, with a view to reconcile their minds to her going to India, thus tenderly addresses them:-"I can anticipate your feelings in parting with one of your children probably for life, and I feel all that reluctance, which an affectionate child would feel for kind parents, when I leave you for a distant country. My husband has long been desirous of going to India, and he feels confident that he can be more useful in the cause of Christ there, than in any other place. He is professedly engaged

in that cause, to promote which ought to be the object of all christians. They ought to be willing to make sacrifices, to endure hardships, and to forsake all for Christ's sake and the gospel's.

"You, my dear mother, professing to be a follower of Jesus, to feel interested in his cause, let me ask, if you do not wish to promote itif you do not desire to see that day, when the gospel shall be preached to every nation under heaven?-How would you feel if deprived of your Bible and the preaching of the gospel? Would you not be willing to go even to India for the enjoyment of such a blessing? And if salvation depend upon knowing and believing in Christ, and if there is greater joy in a well grounded hope and faith in the gospel, than in all the pleasures of the world, is it not of great importance, that the heathen should taste of these joys? I know you will say that it is of importance that the gospel should be preached to them-and why not my husband endure the hardships incident to a missionary life, as well others? Why should not I go to India as well as other women, and share with my husband the trials and comforts of a life devoted to the cause of truth? I hope you and all other christians will pray for us, that we faint not in the day of trial."

On the evening of Thursday 25th inst. in the Baptist meeting house, in Sansom Street, brother Hough was solemnly set apart by prayer and the imposition of hands, to the service of a Missionary, intended for the Empire of Burmah. Introductory prayer by brother Rice; sermon from Mat. xxiv. 14. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations," by the Rev. Mr. White; consecrating prayer by the Rev. Dr. Staughton; imposition of hands by the Rev. Drs. Staughton and Holcombe, and the Rev. Messrs. White, Grigg, and Rice; charge by Dr. Holcombe; address to the assembly by Dr. Staughton; closing prayer by Mr. Grigg. The solemnities were impressive; and a collection was taken for missionary purposes.

MISSIONARY FIELD,

Being the first in the arrangement of Divine Providence occupied by Missionaries under the patronage of the Board.

THIS subject is adverted to with pleasure, not only to satisfy an anxious public whose charities are willingly contributed, but gratefully to record the goodness of God, in selecting, as in the dispensation of his over-ruling providence, he manifestly has done, the large and populous empire of Burmah as the first object for the missionary

• For the information of brethren at a distance, it may be proper just to observe that brother R. who, as well as brother and sister Judson, went out to India under the patronage of the pedo-baptist churches, and who were baptized in Calcutta, by the Rev. Mr. Ward, one of the missionaries at Serampore, and one of the associate pastors of the church at Serampore and Calcutta, and were received to the communion of that church, has, since his return to the U. States, become a member of the baptist church in Sansom Street, Philadelphia; thus strengthening the ties which unite him to his brethren in this country.

efforts of the American Baptists. Introductory to a view of this empire as missionary ground, it may be proper to quote a few sentences contained in a letter from the Rev. Dr. Fuller, of Kettering, to the Corresponding Secretary, in which he observes," I have just now received a letter from Dr. Carey, who says," The Burman mission is fixed at Ava the capital, and a printing press is to be established there, by order of the Emperor. Felix* was some time ago ordered to Ava to vaccinate the younger branches of the royal family. He went, and was received with rather more honour than he would have wished for. He had none of the vaccine virus, but a ship was ordered to be engaged to bring him to Bengal for some. I had in the mean time sent some thither, which arrived the day he was to have embarked, and prevented his coming. He requested leave of the emperor to set up a printing press, which was granted, and he required to reside at Ava. Brother Judson, who is at Rangoon, and feels happy in that mission, will continue there, till further help can be sent thither. I wish we had a brother from England to settle there. We should then have a station at each end of that empire." I think if brother Carey had known the difficulties of an Ame rican brother being admitted into British India, and at the same time the stir excited by brother Rice among the Baptist churches, he would have said-Burmah must be the seat of their labours. Such however is my present judgment."

The Rev. Dr. Ryland generously observes in a letter, "If brother Rice had gone to Rangoon, we should have been very ready to adopt him as our missionary."

From a "Brief View of the Baptist Missions, and Translations," it appears that "Rangoon is the chief seaport of the Burman empire, about 670 miles S. E. from Calcutta, containing 5000 houses." At this place Mr. Felix Carey, eldest son of Dr. Carey, has remained from its first occupancy as a missionary station, in 1807, till required by the emperor, as mentioned in the letter from his father to Dr. Fuller, to remove to Ava, the capital of the empire. In June 1811, he thus wrote "Through the tender mercy of an ever gracious God, I have been hitherto preserved in perfect health, and free from every harm amidst the many dangers and changes which are daily occurring. The attack with which this place has been threatened during these last four or five months, from the depredators who infest the whole country, has hitherto been averted. Several small villages not many miles distant have been plundered; and every now and then patients, desperately wounded, are brought to me for relief.t I have just finished a second and more enlarged revisal of my Burman dictionary, containing all the common words in use derived from the Magudha and the manner in which they are derived. I have also added sentences exemplifying the various meanings of words from different Burman authors. It will make a volume of 3 or 400 pages folio. I feel a delight in my work and am happy in my situation, but all this without the blessing of God can be of no avail: I long for the time when I shall see the gospel publicly preached in this country as it is in Bengal."

*Son of Dr. Carey.

Mr. C. is a Physician.

The views of the Board having been providentially directed to this interesting quarter, some general account of it the public are entitled to expect. The following is the best that could at present be obtained. More information will undoubtedly hereafter be furnished by the missionaries.

THE EMPIRE OF BURMAH is about 1000 miles in length and 600 in breadth, spreading from about the 9th to the 26th degree north latitude, and from the 92d to the 107th east longitude; and contains a population estimated at about fifteen millions. The present sovereign Shembuan Minderagee Praw, who ascended the throne in 1781, assumes the title of Boa or emperor. His will is law, and his power undefined. Next in rank to the princes of the blood royal are the Woongees or chief ministers of state, who constitute the grand council of the nation, and issue mandates to the Maywoons or viceroys of provinces.

Towards the north, the country is mountainous. The plains and vallies in the south, particularly near the rivers, are exceedingly fertile. The seasons are regular, the climate salubrious, and the natives vigorous and healthy.

Every kind of religion is tolerated; nor are the Burmans chained with the iron prejudices of cast. They believe in the metemsychosis, or transmigration of souls from one body to another, and that after having undergone a certain number of transmigrations, their souls will at last be received into their paradise on the mountain of Meru, in the garden of Indra, the seat of delights.

Some knowledge of letters and of writing appears to be widely, perhaps generally, diffused amongst all classes, not excepting those in the lower walks of society. And as they are a lively, inquisitive people, and the maritime parts of the empire favourable to commercial pursuits, little doubt can be entertained of their rising in the scale of oriental nations. The government, however, through all its departments, appears to be not only despotic, but capricious and sanguinary. A strong fact which affectingly illustrates this part of its character, it may not be improper here to record. Among other acts of savage cruelty with which Chenguza, one of the sovereigns, is charged, is his conduct towards his second wife, a young woman of virtue, beauty, and accomplishments. Under the impulse of sudden rage, he accused her of infidelity, and without allowing time for cool judgment, pronounced sentence of immediate death. Accordingly the trembling and innocent victim was dragged from the palace, inclosed in a sack of scarlet cloth, richly ornamented, and thus confined, was put on board a boat, the sack suspended between the narrow necks of two earthen jars, and the whole sunk in the deepest part of the river. Other acts of atrocity not less gloomy, might be detailed; but the mind revolts from the shocking recital!

The trial by ordeal, which forms a part of their code of laws, evinces, at once, their intellectual degradation and superstitious absurdity. The following inconsiderable occurrence may serve as a specimen. Two women having litigated a small property in a court of justice, the judge finding it difficult to decide the question of right, it was agreed to refer the matter to the issue of an ordeal. The parties, attended by an officer of the court, repaired to the water. After certain prayers and ceremonials, they waded in till the water reached as high as their breasts, accompanied by two or three men, one of

whom placed them close to each other, and put a board on their heads, which he pressed down till they were both immersed at the same instant. After continuing out of sight for about one minute and a half, one of them being nearly suffocated, raised her head, while the other remained sitting at the bottom, but was immediately lifted up by the man; after which an officer of the court pronounced judgment in her favour.

Aside from any reference to the solemn consideration of an hereafter, the state of morals and of society, as might indeed be expected in a heathen country, is exceedingly deplorable; and what fixes the most reproachful odium upon their character, is the pitiable condition to which their hateful principles and conduct have consign. ed their women. Even the law, which should ever protect the less powerful and the innocent, from the insolence and outrage of the stronger, and the flagitious, in this unhappy country stamps a degrading distinction between the sexes, wholly to the disadvantage of the female. The evidence of a woman is not received as of equal weight with that of a man, and a woman is not suffered to ascend the steps of a court of justice, but obliged to deliver her testimony on the outside. The custom of selling their daughters, and even their wives, to strangers, is not unfrequent; and however the plea of pecuniary embarrassment may be attempted to be urged in its favour or pallia. tion, it cannot be regarded by civilized people, but with the deepest abhorrence. Subdued by the habit of inevitable degradation, the unresisting women of Burmah surrender themselves the victims of this barbarous custom with apparent resignation. Some of the consequent circumstances of their unfortunate females, delicacy forbids us to mention, otherwise than in the language of the apostle in another case, adverting to those things of which it is a shame even to speak.

Such is but a very brief and imperfect outline of the country, in which Mr. Carey has for several years resided, and to which a kind Providence has recently conveyed Mr. Judson, and the state of its inhabitants, among whom, for the purpose of alleviating their miseries, these zealous disciples of Him "who went about doing good,” and others who may follow them, rejoice in the prospect of wearing out, in so benevolent a service, what little of life may be allowed them on earth. To the eye of a missionary this field presents an interesting prospect, and invites the hand of cultivation. Important by the extent of its own large population, and still more so by its contiguity to China; the salubrity of its climate, favourable to the life and activity of missionaries; the ability of the natives generally to read and write, offering facilities of the utmost importance for putting them speedily in possession of the sacred scriptures; their vigor of intellect, which, improved by the energies of christian principle, may give them a commanding elevation of character, this empire presents a prospect peculiarly encouraging, rendered still more hopeful by the favour of government so happily obtained by Mr. Carey, and the providential manner in which Mr. Judson was carried to Rangoon. And surely the moral miseries of the people impressively solicit the charities of christian benevolence, uttering as with a thousand voices the affecting cry "come over and help us."